penitent, you will pray to God for forgiveness, and most sincerely
resolve never willingly to be guilty of the same sin again.

But you must also remember that, by the law of God, sin can never pass
unpunished. God has said, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." And
when you do any thing that is wrong, and afterwards repent of it, God
forgives you, because the Savior has borne the punishment which you
deserve. This is what is meant by that passage of Scripture, "he was
wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities." Our
Father in heaven loved us so much that he gave his own Son to die in
our stead. And now he says that he is ready to forgive, if we will
repent, and believe in his Son who has suffered and died to save us.
And ought we not to love so kind a Savior?

You cannot expect at present precisely and fully to understand every
thing connected with the sufferings and death of Christ, and the moral
effect they produce. In fact, it is intimated in the Bible, that even
the angels in heaven find this subject one capable of tasking all
their powers. You can understand, however, that he suffered and
died, that you might be forgiven. It would not be safe in any
government to forgive sin merely on the penitence of the sinner.
Civil government cannot do this safely; a family government cannot do
it safely. It is often the case, when a man is condemned to death for
a crime he has committed, that his dearest friends, sometimes his
wife and children, make the most affecting appeals to the chief
magistrate of the state, to grant him pardon. But it will not do. The
governor, if he knows his duty, will be firm, however painful it may
be, in allowing the law to take its course; for he has to consider
not merely the wishes of the unhappy criminal and his friends, but
the safety and happiness of the whole community.

And so the governor of the universe must consider, not merely his own
benevolent feelings towards the sinner, but the safety and the
holiness of all his creatures; and he could not have forgiven our
sins, unless he had planned a way by which we might safely be
forgiven. This way he did devise, to sustain law and protect
holiness, and yet to let us go free from the punishment due to our
sins. Jesus died for us. He bore our sins. By his stripes we are
healed. And shall we not be grateful?

It is thus that God has provided a way for our escape from the penalty
of his law. You have read, "God so loved t